“Singlesource IT has been an integral partner in managing and implementing our technology needs. They not only provide exceptional service and responsiveness, they anticipate and prepare to help in guiding the direction of growth in our company. By assisting in making us more efficient and economical they ultimately help make us more profitable.”

Data loss is the heartbreaker of the IT world. Your end-of-the-year reports, your market analysis, blueprints, sales figures, confidential intellectual property, vacation pics from Vegas, whatever your data may be - at the end of the day, it's all just a bunch of 1s and 0s. Hard drives will eventually fail. And portable electronics - laptops, phones, and cameras - seem to be magically attracted to water.

We have many tools in-house to retrieve, copy, and repair data that seems like a lost cause. But for the toughest cases we've partnered with DriveSavers, the premier data recovery service in the United States.

What do they have that we don't? Let's start with the big one: DriveSavers has invested $2,000,000 to build the most technologically advanced data recovery environment in the industry. It features a 975 square foot Certified ISO Class 5 Facility. What does that mean? The Discovery Chanel went "backstage" to find out. Take a look:

DriveSavers has recovered the hard work and critical data of Hollywood producers, of rock stars, and is trusted by corporate clients in every industry. Partenering with them has allowed us to deliver the same service to our clients. And sometimes that makes us look like rock stars too.

Failure rates. When it comes to what's happening behind the server closet door, usually "no news is good news". As long as there's a peaceful hum and a little heat coming out of there, we move on, feeling good for another day.

But as this graph shows, no server lasts forever.

During the first year, servers are shown to have a failure rate of 5%. While this might seem high, it's often the result of some out-of-the-box defect or initial configuration issue, easily diagnosed and fixed. Over the next two years, rates only rise at a level of 1%, showing a period of stability. Hard drive failures start to spike around year four, pushing our number up to 11%. After that, the curve increases until it becomes clear that a server replacement is not just of question of if, but when.

A similar graph shows Server Downtime by age. Reflecting the failure rates above, this graph shows that downtime is relatively flat for the first few years - downtime that might be attributed to planned re-boots and software updates. After that the curve shows a sharp and steady increase indicating unplanned incidents and additional resources spent on IT personnel to address emergency problems.

In other words, a planned investment in hardware now might save you money (and headaches) down the road.

Even if you're not running a server, the same sort of failure curve applies to Laptops, Workstations, Tablets, and other digital devices. Think ahead, backup, and have a life-cycle replacement plan in place. If you need a second opinion, give us a call. We're ready to review your network, make recommendations, and guarantee that you're ready for business.

Facebook has been feeling the squeeze these days. Stocks are down, scrutiny is up. Why? Because Facebook’s dark art of personal data gathering has been coming to light.

When you sign up for a social medial platform, or download any “free” app, you strike a bargain with the developers: I’ll let you spy on me if I can use your service. This can range from the boring stuff – using your location to serve up local advertisements – to the downright creepy. Facebook sees everything you click, everything you like. That's how they get to know you so well... and have gotten so good at selling you to their advertisers.

While much of this is expected, sometimes news comes out that takes everyone by surprise, like this: Facebook’s Android app has been logging your calls and text messages. They don’t know what you’ve said or why you said it, but they do know exactly who you’ve been calling and texting, how often, and for how long.

Do you really want them to know all of that? No! So let’s take a minute and get that turned off.

Start by opening your “Settings” app, and then tapping the option “Apps”.

Tap on “App Manager” and find the App that you’d like to investigate, such as Facebook.

Scroll down to the option for “Permissions”, tap and review.

Turn off anything unnecessary! For Facebook, this would include the options for “Phone” and “SMS”

Some apps need access to certain things of course. Snapchat wouldn’t be much fun if it couldn’t find your camera. But it’s a good rule of thumb to double-check any new app and dial back anything that looks superfluous or suspicious.

As it’s been said, “If you’re getting the service for free, you’re the product.” Keep using social media, but think it through when you do. Take a minute to check your settings, read up on the terms of service. And before installing an app, ask yourself: Do I really need that? If you’re not sure, just say no, and enjoy a little extra privacy.

You've seen the news. Two new computer vulnerabilities are on the loose: Meltdown and Spectre. We've been following this story closely, and we'd like to make sure that you have the facts that you need to avoid these new threats.

These exploits represent a new type of threat as they target the CPU - or the chip - itself, potentially reading information as it's passed through the processor. We say "potential" for a reason - so far there have been no known attacks using these methods.

Microsoft is working on, and has rolled out, updates for all of their current operating systems. However, as these threats are a brand new category of exploit, patching older versions of their software (specifically Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012) presents Microsoft with significant challenges. Updates are not available at this time.

Again, these threats have yet to lead to any instances of data theft. However, the best way to protect yourself against the possibility of a breach is to install the latest updates, and if you're on an older verions of Windows Server, to migrate to the latest version. A move to Windows Server 2016 would provide you with a solution that has been securely hardened against Meltdown, Spectre and other similar exploits that may follow.

Let us know if you'd like to discuss your options. We're here to help, and keep you informed as this story continues to break.